Moriah Rose Pereira, better known as Poppy, took the internet by storm in 2014 when she created a series of performance art videos on YouTube that many people found slightly disturbing. One of the most well-known videos involved Poppy staring eerily at the screen repeating “I am Poppy” over and over again. Poppy’s character serves as a satirical commentary on today’s internet culture, as well as humanistic themes involving gender and femininity. Poppy is known best for her bleach blonde hair, her robotic valley-girl voice, and her electro-bubblegum pop music. Thus far, Poppy has released 3 studio albums.
In her first project, Poppy.Computer, her music had very distinct elements of synthetic music while maintaining a bubbly, pop feel. However, in her second project, Am I a Girl?, Poppy begins to draw on heavy metal influences which eventually leads to her third project, I Disagree. This album is almost entirely nu-metal, with dark and macabre themes intertwined in every song. The imagery and style of this album is almost completely antithesis to the very sterile, hyper-femme imagery of her past two works. It feels as though her first two albums were the buildup to Poppy going full horror on us. The apocalypse is here and Poppy the femme-bot is out for blood!
The first song I listened to was “BLOODMONEY”, and in all truth, she already had me within the first 10 seconds of the song. After forcing myself to listen to the whole album instead of manically listening to “BLOODMONEY” on repeat for a week, (as I normally do when I come across new songs I love) I manically listened to the entire album on repeat for almost a month. Everything about this album was amazing: from the timing of the release to the extended album to the visuals. I have this album to thank for motivating me to get back into grunge, metal, and other alternative genres, as that is the kind of music I grew up listening to. I am also in love with the fact that more and more womxn are feeling more open to expressing emotions like rage and doing so by creating these beautiful works of metal and rock-influenced music.
My top 3 favorite aspects of this album have to be: the scary on-point timing, how dynamic each song is, and the imagery/music videos that go along with the album. Firstly, Poppy released I Disagree on January 10, 2020, right before COVID-19 started taking its toll on the world. The themes discussed in the album seem eerily prophetic as the last song on the album “Don’t Go Outside” perfectly sums up a lot of what people are currently dealing with (I.e., anxiety, isolation, loss, mental health, etc.) and literally warns the audience to stop going outside. Secondly, almost every song is dynamic, shifting from heavy metal to kawaii-pop to show-tune sounding melodies all within one song. The best example of that on the album has to be “Bite Your Teeth” as Poppy switches back and forth from a screamo style to very upbeat-optimistic melodies perfectly contrasting with the scary lyrics of the song. Lastly, the visuals of this album please the side of me that adores a dark and horrific aesthetic. It’s entirely up to personal taste, but I love seeing how people interpret and portray the combination of femininity and horror. In my head, the concepts of feminine energy and macabre themes are almost opposite, as society often portrays femininity through a lens of purity, holiness, and life-giving; being closely tied with the figures of the Virgin Mary and Venus.
Overall, this album is emotional and empowering. While the metal influences may be new in her music, Poppy beautifully incorporates her electropop origins while experimenting with this new sound. You can tell this album was worked through, and each song was crafted meticulously as the transitions in this album are, in my opinion, perfectly placed. I encourage everyone to listen to this album, even if hardcore music isn’t your taste. It will be a new experience, but it’s definitely worth it just for the opportunity to hear a womxn in her element, creating music that takes up space and speaks on things all feminine individuals can relate to.